One dead, two injured in shooting at South Side party

One person was killed and another three were injured, one critically, in a shooting on the 4400 block of Courtess in South Bexar County. Photo: Nolan Hicks / Express-News

A party Nick Salinas, 17, and his parents were hosting in south Bexar County for a long-time friend's 20th birthday ended fatally when a guest opened fire early Saturday.

Bexar County Sheriff's Sgt. Raymond Pollard said it was just after 3 a.m. when Anthony Stevens Terrell, 22, was shot and killed in front of the home in the 4400 block of Countess, located west of Highway 16 and south of Loop 1604.

Salinas' 13-year-old cousin was shot in the head and might not be able to walk or talk again if she survives, he said.

Bexar County deputies still are looking for the gunman, described as a Hispanic male in his 20s, who opened fire on the crowd of about 50 people after shooting Terrell at close range and drove away in a dark blue Dodge Durango.

The shooting happened in front of a brick home in a rural, working-class neighborhood where most properties are lined with fences and dogs roam freely.

On Saturday evening, Salinas pointed out the bullet holes along the back of his car and a pool of blood, swarming with flies, next to the front porch where he said his 13-year-old cousin was standing when a bullet came from about 30 yards away and struck her in the head.

Pollard said Terrell, a friend of the Salinas family, tried to stop an argument between a group of women at the party and was shot by a boyfriend of one of the women involved.

Salinas said a woman started an argument with a guest who was tasked with manning the front door to the party.

“They started acting up, and my mom started to kick them out and make them leave,” he said, referring to the woman who started the argument and a few of her friends. “Then my mom's friend stepped in to defend her, and the women started fighting her, too.”

Salinas said Terrell, the husband of his mother's friend, stepped in to defend his wife, which angered another man at the party. Salinas said that man went to his truck parked in the street and grabbed a gun.

“Terrell tried to knock the gun out of his hand, and I guess got shot instead,” he said.

Another party guest, 15-year-old Saul Carreon, said he saw the struggle from about 10 feet away and that the gunman first shot Terrell in the stomach, then in the head, before turning the gun on the crowd in the front yard.

“I ran around the back of the house to get away. I tried to jump a fence and fell; everyone was running,” he said, pulling up his pants leg to show a bruised and scraped knee from the fall.

When the gunman shot toward the house, Salinas' cousin was hit.

Another guest, a 15-year-old girl, tried to rush the gunman during the shooting but was pistol-whipped, Salinas said.

Pollard said the suspect fired several more shots before leaving. No one else was injured.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Louis Antu said Saturday evening that the 13-year-old girl survived early-morning surgery at University Hospital but had no additional information about her condition.

“She's in a coma now,” Salinas said about his cousin. “Doctors said if she comes out of it they don't know what she'll be able to do.”

Salinas' mother and father spent most of Saturday giving statements to investigating officers while the rest of his family was at the hospital with his cousin, he said.